Bisnow’s Rise Initiative: Making a more inclusive and diverse built environment sector

The Bisnow Rise Initiative aims to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in commercial real estate by recognising the contributions of companies advancing DEI. It was launched in the US and now includes the UK and Ireland. In this webinar, JLL and Seaforth Land Holdings explain the steps they are taking to help young people from diverse backgrounds start a career in real estate.

Addressing DEI in real estate

The Seaforth Scholar Award was set up to increase representation and social mobility in the real estate industry. Launched in 2021, it provides financial support through a £5,000 bursary. This bursary is available to sixth form students who are looking to study the built environment at university, or first year university students studying real estate or a transferable course, explains Farrah LaBorde, Operations Manager at Seaforth Land Holdings. The scheme is initially focused on London but hopes to expand UK-wide. For the team, one of the most rewarding aspects is the mentoring connection they establish with the students, says Farrah. ‘A major goal is to create a talent pool where we hire from people whom we have seen through the entire process, breaking down barriers and increasing diversity and inclusion within our own workforce’, she says.

Corporate real estate lags behind other industries when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion, acknowledges Jennifer Jones, Head of Learning & Development UK&I at JLL. The organisation’s initiatives include JLL Thrive, focus groups and the Race for Change network, which champions race and ethnicity in the industry. JLL Thrive, currently in its second year, supports the career progression of ethnically underrepresented colleagues at JLL, UK and Ireland, explains Jennifer. The programme is application based: applicants are scored blindly, and their progress is tracked. It is run in partnership with an external consultancy firm and includes the individual’s line manager and a sponsor, she says. ‘The rationale behind having three parties involved is we want to acknowledge that many of the barriers and challenges related to ethnically underrepresented colleague’s progression are systemic. We want to work on our culture and the ecosystem in which the individual works in’, says Jennifer. A global version is being piloted next year.

JLL was very keen to use data to provide hard evidence that the challenge of ethnic underrepresentation is real and not anecdotal, says Jennifer. In the discovery phase, JLL analysed internal data on how different ethnic employee groups developed in the organisation. This included rates of progression, performance evaluations and turnover. Her team found that differences did exist, providing the rationale for moving forward with the programme, she says. The progress of individuals on the scheme is tracked and, of the initial group, 30% of participants have successfully shifted to new careers within JLL. The scheme has also brought benefits for the organisation. These include increasing the confidence of the participants, enabling them to take on greater stretch targets and innovate in areas they might not have previously considered, she says.

Starting points and raising awareness

‘The really important thing is starting somewhere. And it doesn't matter how small that starting point is, it's always going to be better than nothing’, says Jennifer Jones. Farrah LaBorde echoes this sentiment: ‘we are a very small team, so we had that question of where do we start? It's very much a big-ticket topic of how can we make a change with diversity and inclusion? We formed a partnership with Access Aspiration because we thought we can start small, learn and gradually build’.  Access Aspiration works with schools to improve career accessibility options among 16–18-year-olds from low-income and underrepresented backgrounds. Seaforth donates £10,000 to the initiative each year and provides insight days, among other things.

‘One of the biggest challenges has been raising awareness of the programme among young people’, says Farrah. Steps taken include leveraging connections with existing organisations and reaching out to new ones, including attending presentations and networking at Henley Business School, University of Reading’s Summer School programme. The team is also part of the industry panel providing post-event support and has also made affiliations with the university itself, which now advertises the scheme on its website. The Summer School is a fully-funded residential course providing insight and information on the property sector and different career routes into the industry.

Farrah stresses the importance of collaboration: ‘for schemes to work and for the real estate industry to make a real difference when it comes to diversity and inclusion, we have to realise there is a systemic problem and the only way to change that is by working together’.

Placemaking and inclusion

Increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in the real estate industry helps give young people a stake in the built environment. Farrah believes that as a real estate developer, it is thier responsibility to create an environment where no one feels excluded, where London isn't off limits to the people that live there. ‘Insight days have established a connection with buildings owned and developed by Seaforth in the neighbourhood and its young people’, she says. A typical response has been, ‘I don't live far from that building. I walk past it all the time, but I didn't know what it was’. Farrah concludes, ‘ultimately, the environment is for the people that live in the area, and hopefully by going into schools and starting from a young age we're hoping that our scheme can really take hold’.

WBEF welcomes RICS and Bisnow Committee Member, Hanna Osundina to discuss Bisnow’s Rise Initiative, aimed at highlighting replicable strategies that will help the Commercial Real Estate workforce become increasingly more diverse and inclusive.

Find out more about best practice taking place in the Built Environment and hear from the companies making a real difference and leading the way in setting DEI goals, measuring their progress and holding themselves accountable.